1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to door lock control device and, more particularly, to a door lock control device that unlocks a vehicle door when a predetermined operation in a vehicle compartment is detected such as, for example, an engine starting operation.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, there is known a door apparatus, such as disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. 2739671, that has a so-called double lock mechanism which causes a link to be incapable of switching between locking and unlocking a vehicle door by using, for example, an electric motor. In such a door apparatus, after the double lock mechanism operates and a vehicle door is set in a double-locked state, the double-locked state can be cancelled by a regular unlocking operation while cancellation of the double-locked state cannot be done by an unjust operation to the above-mentioned link. Therefore, according to the above-mentioned door apparatus, it is possible to improve the theft-proof function of a vehicle with respect to an unjust unlocking operation applied to a vehicle door.
However, if the cancellation of the double-locked state is performed only by the regular unlocking operation as mentioned above and when a vehicle door is double-locked in a state where a regular passenger remains in the vehicle compartment, there occurs a problem in that the passenger is confined in the vehicle compartment. Thus, in the above-mentioned door apparatus, the double-locked state can also be cancelled by an ignition operation. Therefore, according to the above-mentioned door apparatus, it is possible to prevent a regular passenger from being confined in a vehicle compartment due to double locking of a vehicle door.
That is, in the above-mentioned system, the cancellation of the double-locked state of a vehicle door can be achieved also by an ignition operation. For this reason, the double-locked state can be cancelled even when a third person or an unknown person, who is not a regular passenger, gets in the vehicle compartment and turn on an ignition switch unjustly, which deteriorates the anti-theft property of the vehicle.